U for Utopia: the dystopian and eutopian visions in Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta

Abstract

Drawing on genre definitions of utopia, eutopia and dystopia, this article argues that although the bulk of V for Vendetta can be understood as dystopian, because it ends with a utopian vision, and because that vision is a promise not a warning, V for Vendetta is in fact a utopian work that calls for a utopian anarchist revolution. It does not dismiss the utopian impulse, but praises it, and it is in this utopian mode – as a utopian work – that V for Vendetta must finally be understood.